Empathy Interview

Uses

  • As a tool to perform user research.
  • To understand people’s experience as they use a thing, a space or a process.

Description

The empathy interview is an approach to finding out as much as possible about a person’s experience as a “user” of a space, a process, an objective or an environment. We want to understand the choices that people make and why they make them.

Notes from d.school’s bootcamp document on interview process:

  1. Introduce yourself
  2. Introduce the project
  3. Build rapport
  4. Evoke stories
  5. Explore emotions
  6. Question statements
  7. Thank and Wrap-up

TIPS

  • Keep questions to 10 words or less.
  • Be as neutral as possible in your questions — no right or wrong answers.
  • One question at a time.
  • Try to interview in pairs or use a voice recorder.
  • Encourage stories.